Badr Organization

The Badr Organization is a Shia Islamic political party in Iraq that was founded in 1982 as a militia of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. The Badr Organization was founded by Shi'ite Iraqi refugees, exiles, and defectors who opposed Saddam Hussein's Sunni Ba'athist regime, and its armed wing, the Badr Brigades, were armed and directed by Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. The Badr Organization was based out of Iran during Saddam's rule, and its fighters would later assist in the failed 1991 Shia uprisings and the 1995 Kurdish Civil War, fighting on the side of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan against the pro-Baghdad Kurdistan Democratic Party. The Badr Organization maintained an armed wing until 2003, when its fighters joined the new Iraqi Army, police, and the Interior Ministry in large numbers following the deposition of Saddam by the US-led coalition. The Badr Organization became a conservative and Islamist political party, and it raised fighters for the Popular Mobilization Forces in 2014, fighting against the Islamic State. In 2017, the party held 22/325 Council of Representatives seats.